Adjudication No. 1225 (December 2003) [2003] APC 41

Adjudication No. 1225 (December 2003)

The Australian Press Council has upheld in part, by a vote of 9 to 8, a complaint from Shari Sciberras about an article, Bikie pursuit as police target the "X-men" inside, published in The Daily Telegraph on 29 April 2003.

The article was about the police investigating the use of youths (the "X-men" of the headline) by motorcycle gangs for low-level drug distribution, car thefts and break-ins.

One sentence particularly upset Mrs Sciberras:

Female associates - or the bikies' "old ladies" - are also recruited and exploited to work in topless bars or as prostitutes.

Mrs Sciberras, the wife of a Bandido motorcycle club member, complained on behalf of the 'Bandido Ole Ladies'. She claimed the report was a made up of 'unsubstantiated lies', and that none of the wives or 'old ladies' has ever worked as a prostitute or been exploited by their husbands. She also sought from the newspaper details of its sources.

The Daily Telegraph disputes the complaint, saying that the information was given to the paper by police officers and corroborated by the Australian Crime Commission. The paper says the article "reports a police allegation that some gang members' wives or partners ... are recruited by the gangs to work as prostitutes or in topless bars". It also says it does not specify which gangs were involved, and disputes Ms Sciberras's statement that no women associated with the club engaged in the activities described.

Mrs Sciberras' letter of protest about the article appears to have gone astray. She sent a second copy to the editor about six weeks later. This was not published.

The Council believes the report was in the public interest. But it notes that the 29 April article did not use the word "some" and identified the Bandidos a number of times by name.

As a result, the article could be seen as unfair to Mrs Scibberas and her associates. The newspaper was under some obligation to provide her with redress through publication of balancing material. To the extent that nothing was published, the complaint is upheld.